Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The AFL/NFL Merger

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

On December 28, 1958, a record-setting audience of nearly 50 million people watched the National Football League championship game. Pro football was on the rise, and investors took notice. They saw the potential to expand the brand into more cities. When the NFL resisted expansion, a group of spurned young investors dared to create an alternative league. Eventually, the NFL took notice and was forced to deal with the new league. Learn more about the AFL-NFL merger on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Shop the store at Shop.Everything-Everywhere.com Sponsors Hexclad Get 10% off your order at hexclad.com/DAILY Mint Mobile Save 50% on Unlimited premium wireless plans starting at $15/month at MintMobile.com/EED Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! DripDrop Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code EVERYTHING for 20% off your first order! Square Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/daily Horizon3 Go to horizon3.ai/everything and request your free NodeZero demo Babbel Go to babbel.com/daily for up to 60% off Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/Ds7Rx7jvPJ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On December 28, 1958, a record-setting audience of nearly 45 million people watched the National Football League Championship game. Pro football at this point was on the rise and investors took notice. They saw the potential to expand the game into more cities. But when the NFL resisted expansion, a group of spurned young investors dared to create an alternative league. It was a decision that changed everything about professional football. Learn more about the AFL-NFEL merger on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is brought to you by Accenture.

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Call or text 211 or visit ab.211.ca. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with the Alberta Eye Gaming Corporation. Standard message and data rates may apply. The National Football League was founded in 1920 in Canton, Ohio, originally consisting of 14 teams based in small Midwestern industrial towns. Some of the earliest teams were the Dayton Triangles, the Canton Bulldogs, the Akron Pros, the Columbus Panhandles, the Chicago Cardinals, and the Decatur Stanley's. The league changed slightly over the years,

adding the Green Bay Packers in 1921, although the Packers' origin story begins before the NFL's as they were founded in 1919. The history of the 13-time NFL champions was covered in a previous podcast. Over time, interest in the league grew as it added divisions, changed to rules, and in 1933, instituted a championship game. The rise in interest in demand for tickets prompted the NFL to expand beyond its Midwestern routes, adding teams in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh.

The NFL broadcast its first game on television in 1939 and received very few viewers. As televisions became more common, however, broadcasts improved, culminating in the famed greatest game ever played, the 1958 championship between the Colts and the Giants. Lamar Hunt and Oilman from Texas was one of the millions who watched the game with great interest. He saw football's potential and sought to expand the league. beyond its 12-team format. Growing up in Dallas, Texas, Hunt dreamed of bringing professional football to his hometown. After a series of keen investments by his father, H. L. Hunt, Lamar had the

financial means to make that dream a reality. However, the NFL was not interested in expanding to Dallas, as it was still largely a Midwestern and Eastern game. Not giving up, Hunt offered to buy the Chicago Cardinals in 1959 to move the team to Dallas. Chicago had two of the 12 teams in 1958, the Cardinals who played at Comisky Park and the Bears who played at Wrigley Field. Encouraged by the NFL's leadership, the Cardinals' ownership refused the offer. The NFL was basically a monopoly, and its owners didn't want to disrupt the system or share any of its earnings. Out of options, Hunt picked up the phone and reached out to a group of young millionaires, some of whom had already been turned away by the NFL, including fellow Texan Bud Adam,

Bob Housam of Denver, Baron Hilton of Los Angeles, and Harry Wismer of New York. The group, which eventually grew to eight, concluded that the only way forward was to beat the NFL at its own game. They created the American Football League, which was intended to be a direct competitor to the National Football League. 1960 was the inaugural season of the AFL, and Hunt placed his own franchise, the Dallas Texans, in his hometown. To counter him, the NFL granted an expansion franchise to Clint, Murchison Jr., creating

the Dallas Cowboys in an attempt to split the Dallas market. The brutal crosstown battle for fans would eventually push Hunt to relocate his team to Missouri in 1963, becoming the Kansas City Chiefs. The nation's sport media, encouraged by the NFL cartel, lambasted the new league and mocked the owner's audacity in thinking that they could compete. Hunt and his fellow AFL owners adopted the moniker the Foolish Club. As noted by author Jim Morrison in Smithsonian Magazine, quote, that's what the eight original team owners called themselves,

because they were crazy enough to take on the firmly entrenched NFL, end quote. The AFL quickly created a counter brand to the NFL. In 1960, the NFL was conservative in both its management and style of play. NFL offenses emphasized the power running game, playing the proverbial three yards in a cloud of dust. The NFL instituted rules to emphasize the run game and limited passing by allowing defensive players to mall receivers downfield. The contrast and styles between the NFL and the AFL was stark.

The AFL was a passing league, led by pioneering San Diego Chargers coach Sid Gilman. AFL offenses define the league. Unlike the NFL, the AFL spread the field. It used pre-snap motion to free receivers. and instituted rules to protect the quarterback and to free receivers in the defensive secondary. AFL quarterbacks threw deep on typical running downs and brought a new level of excitement to the game. Longtime executive Gil Brandt framed it this way. For fans, even an unsuccessful deep pass play is more exciting than a run.

But the AFL didn't stop there. It adopted a two-point conversion after touchdowns to increase drama. And the AFL had brightly colored uniforms with names. and the backs of the jerseys. In many ways, these contrasting leagues paralleled the NBA and ABA, whose unification I covered in a previous episode. Another key similarity shared by the ABA and the AFL was their attitude towards black players. While the NFL, much like the NBA, adhered to unwritten quotas that limited black athletes

on active rosters, the AFL scouted everywhere. Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt hired Lloyd Wells, the first full-time black scout professional football history. Wells prioritized campuses like Grambling State, Morgan State, and Prairie View A&M. Capitalizing on this blind spot in the NFL, the AFL used this new strategy to sign a series of game-changing talents like Buck Buchanan, Willie Lanier, and Otis Taylor. The NFL adapted quickly and began drafting the same players into its league that the AFL was drafting into theirs, sparking fierce bidding wars that eventually became known as the babysitting wars.

College seniors couldn't officially sign pro contracts until their post-season bowl games ended. To secure top players, teams hired scouts to act as bodyguards. In a rather ridiculous display, the two leagues often checked players into remote motels under fake names, fed them steak dinners, hid them from opposing scouts, and guarded the hotel doors. During the bowl games, the final game of a bowl games,

the final game of a player's season, scouts from both leagues stood on opposite side lines, armed with fountain pens, notary publics, and contracts stuffed inside their suit jackets. Literally, the second the final whistle blew was a mad dash onto the field, a race for top player signatures.

The NFL assumed that it would reign supreme because of its history and TV deal. But that changed in 1964 when the AFL landed a TV deal worth $36 million dollars over five years. For the first time, the AFL was now on equal footing with the NFL. Flushed with cash, the AFL's New York Jets made a splash by signing star Alabama quarterback Joe Namath. Much like his ABA counterpart, Dr. J. Namath became an immediate national sensation.

The leagues coexisted in an uneasy truce until 1966. An unwritten gentleman's agreement covered the two leagues contracts. If a player was under contract in one league, then you couldn't sign him, even if they had completed their contract and were renegotiating. That agreement was torn apart in 1966 by Wellington Mara of the NFL's New York Giants. With the Giants kicking game in absolute disaster, they looked to solve the problem with the signing of Buffalo Bills kicker, Pete Gogalak. Gogalak was revolutionizing the kicking position with a stocker-style kick for the two-time AFL champion Buffalo Bills. When Gogalak's option year expired, Mara swooped in and signed him to an NFL contract, tripling a salary and starting a bidding war between the two leagues.

The new AFL commissioner and Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis acted quickly, encouraging league officials to sign Roman Gabriel and John Brody, also free of their NFL contracts, to future contracts with the AFL, including Brody on an astonishing quarter million dollar a year deal. The future for both leagues was untenable if they were simply going to rate each other's rosters for top talent at astronomical prices. Lamar Hunt set up a series of secret meetings with NFL Commissioner Pete Roselle. The meetings were held at homes, hotels booked under assumed names, on airport runways,

and in back rooms, anywhere to keep the preceding secret. And the negotiations were ruthless. Hunt demanded that every AFL team, including a new expansion, franchise in Cincinnati be immediately admitted to the new league. Rosel countered with harsh terms on sharing TV contracts in joint markets like New York and San Francisco. Each time they moved closer to a deal, the two sides drifted apart with another key demand. However, they did agree on some major points. Both sides wanted a common draft in which the leagues would hold a single binding draft eliminating costly bidding wars. Both sides also recognized the benefits. Both sides also recognized the

benefits of a championship game between the two leagues. On the evening of June 8, 1966, Pete Roselle and Lamar Hunt walked into a packed press conference in New York City to announce the formal merger of the AFL and the NFL. The two leagues would play separate schedules within their own conferences, be bound by the rules of a common draft and player acquisition protocols, and play a championship game at the end of the season. Roselle and Haunt had achieved something remarkable, except it turns out the entire deal was illegal. For the two leagues to merge, they needed congressional approval.

Under federal antitrust law, two competing corporate giants cannot simply conspire in a backroom deal to eliminate competition, suppress labor costs, and divide the national television market. The head of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, Emmanuel Seller of New York, felt this merger created a monopoly and trashed the agreement's limitation on collective bargaining and the unified draft. Before the 1966 agreement, players drafted in one league could choose which league they wanted to play in and bargain with the opposing league. Roselle needed allies in Congress to get this through, and he found them in Louisiana Senator Russell Long, the Senate Majority Whip, and Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs, the House Minority Whip. Their terms for Rosell were simple.

If there wasn't an NFL franchise in New Orleans, there would be no merger. Rosell agreed, and Boggs slipped the language into an appropriations bill, which was quickly signed into law by football fan, President Lyndon Johnson. Roselle got his new expanded league, and Louisiana got the New Orleans Saints. The merger between the AFL and NFL created a sports empire. The Crown Jewel was a new championship game called the Super Bowl, which I've covered in a previous episode. The first Super Bowl took place in January of 1967

when the NFL's Green Bay Packers defeated the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, 35 to 10. As it turned out, the Old Guard NFL leaders were at least initially right. Their style of play would beat the AFL style head-to-head, as the Packers won the second Super Bowl as well, beating the Oakland Raiders 33 to 14. I just had to mention that.

However, Joe NamUs in Super Bowl 3 proved that AFL teams were in fact perfectly capable of beating the Old Guard NFL. The NFL and AFL teams became the basis for the major divisions in the sport today, the AFC and the NFC. The all-time Super Bowl record, which gives NFC teams a razor-thin 30-29 lead, stands as proof of the merger's competitive balance. The merger overseen by Rosell and Hunt created something much bigger than just two conferences in a professional football league. They created the most lucrative sports league in the world. According to 2026 data, the average NFL team is worth nearly $10 billion. And the league's revenue almost doubles that of its closest competitor, Major League Baseball. The NFL of today wouldn't be where it is without the AFL merger.

So in a very real sense, the most lucrative sports league in the world owes its success to the fact that it kept a bunch of teams from joining their league in their early 1960s. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research in writing for this episode was provided by Joel Hermanson. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord, as this is where everything happens outside of the podcast. As always, if you leave a review on any of the major podcast apps, you too can have it run in the show.